Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

My Daughter moved her car 120 miles away. 

It's fun to leave your mark. Gotta have a little fun! 

Six degrees of separation, Fahrenheit or Celsius? 

The Never ending story? 

This came out of an '08 Mustang.

Armed with my junkyard SJB I drove back up to Davis. This time I took my '96 Mustang as it got a bit better gas mileage than the Flex, and I figured that it could use some exercise.  I'd been driving it since I fixed the plug wire incident with no problems, in fact it was running really strong. I always describe the temp gauge as a clock face, straight up being 12:00. Usually the needle stayed to the right at around 11:55. When the needle indicated 12:03 I was starting to get a bit concerned. It never got higher than 12:05.

It was a hot day, 90+ degrees, and I was moving along at 75+ mph. Usually low speed cooling issues work out due to the increased air flow. I hadn't had any problems in a long time, and I wasn't in a position to do much right now except to check the coolant level when I arrived. Upon arrival the needle returned to a more normal position. All through this episode the needle had never left the "normal" range indicated on the gauge. It also never "puked" any coolant upon stopping, which left me to deal with the other Mustang.

Removing the kick panel covers was easy, I first pried up the door sill plate then pulled the kick panel cover off exposing the SJB. I did not detect any evidence of water intrusion, not even the most minor presence of any moisture. Everything was dry. I removed the three electrical plugs visible from the front, then undid the single securing nut and pulled the SJB out of its recess. There were seven more plugs in the back! There are hundreds of connections. 

I didn't see any evidence of moisture in the area or oxidation inside of the connections of the original box. All of the connections in the car mated with the replacement '08 box, except one that looked like an antenna connection. The '08 box had what appeared to be an aerial running up the outside of the case. Sort of like an old transistor radio. I guessed that this was for the key fob transmitters.

After it was hooked up, I was successful in starting the car.. The engine was running and the dash warning lights went out. I found that the a/c fan control, radio, turn signals, and windows all were working again. The engine sounded fine, and I was just about to congratulate myself when the traction control light lit up and the others followed. The functions that had been there a minute ago were now gone! I quickly moved the car to a shaded parking spot after which the motor died and would not restart. 

I was quite disappointed, to say the least. I did manage to restart the motor by jumping the battery but nothing was working. I removed the replacement box and exchanged it with the original. I restarted the car by jumping it,  but the motor died after about a minute. After that I disconnected the negative terminal and left it off, no need to run the battery down further. 

This wasn't going to be an easy fix. Either I needed an exact replacement box or the junkyard replacement would need to be reprogrammed. I imagine that the systems worked until the car realized that it didn't recognize the box and shut everything down. 

While on the road home I kept an eye on the temp gauge and slowed down a bit. The hoses, cap, and coolant were new. The thermostat was changed out not that long ago. There weren't any leaks. When I had cleaned the oil cooler I had found some deposits of corrosion in the oil cooler, maybe the radiator was getting a bit blocked. I'd had the car for 13 years and have never flushed the system. Could it be the water pump? Since it wasn't an emergency it would have to wait.

I also wondered if the new Mach One spoiler was blocking some airflow, since it was positioned ahead of the under bumper opening. The original spoiler, which was still in place, was located behind the opening.

Upon arrival in San Jose I stopped at my mechanic's shop. I asked him about the reprogramming and he told me that he "had a guy" that worked out of the shop. That's one lead that I can follow up on.

I was so desperate that I even contacted the dealer's service writer. They advised me of the same. "Just bring it in and we can run a diagnostic and find what's wrong." Cost? 250 bucks. I asked if they had a secondary source for these units, the service writer told me that was privileged info, they protected their sources. I had been discussing the problem with my Wife, who started looking for an exact replacement on EBay. She found one and we ordered it. Now we just had to wait a week for delivery, but at least it is returnable. 

I had another idea that I could buy a cheap car for my Daughter to drive while I sorted out the problems. But that had it's own problems, how good could a cheap car be? It might turn out to be another problem that I'd have to deal with. Didn't I already have a good cheap car? My '96 Mustang has been well maintained and it's the car that I used to teach my daughter how to drive. 

Realistically, lending her my Mustang made the most sense, even though I'm very protective about this car. 

But what about that temperature gauge?

I have owned the car for 13 years and kept up the maintenance. I'd changed out all the hoses, serpentine belt, and even the thermostat. But I hadn't flushed the cooling system. I had found some deposits in the oil cooler and wondered if there were any in the radiator. I thought about having the radiator flushed at a radiator shop but figured that I would need to make an appointment and it would set me back at least one hundred bucks. I thought it would be more expedient to just change out the radiator with a new unit. I could order one from Rock Auto for that 100 dollars but it would probably take a week to arrive. So I decided to go to my local auto parts store, Winchester Auto. They could order it and have it there in a couple of days for 300.00. So that's what I did.

First I needed to pull the old radiator.

It came out easily.

I didn't find many leaves or debris between the radiator
and the condenser.

I blew some compressed air backwards through the condenser core. I was surprised by how little restriction that it offered to the air flow. I took advantage of this opportunity since it doesn't present itself too often. 

I got a call a couple of days later about the radiator and went to pick it up. I immediately noticed a hole punched in the box. I opened up the box and sure enough, found a small area of flattened fins. I didn't think that it would leak or cause any real problems, but I had just paid three bills! No way I was going to accept this, I told them that I needed a replacement. ASAP! They told me that it had a lifetime guarantee and that I could bring it back if it leaked. Then they said that it might be a week to source a replacement. I said that was unacceptable, and insisted that they start looking for one. A couple of phone calls later they told me that they could have one delivered in three days. It was longer than I wanted, and I suspect they had just told me a story so I would take the damaged item. Like I had told them, I didn't want to have to do the job twice! 

Now, that's more like it!

In  the meantime, I went home and checked the operation of the electric fan, which worked fine. I really like that electric fans have replaced those old crankshaft driven units. It not only cleans up the look under the hood, it makes working on the motor easier. It looks like this particular radiator/fan combo could be used in updating an earlier car. Good to know.

After I had pulled the old radiator, I noticed that some of the last coolant dripped out along with some "crap." Fine, sand-like debris. Maybe there was some blockage. The old radiator was too good to toss, I think that it would be okay with a garden hose flush, there wasn't any damage or leaking. I plan to sell it on Craig's List, the last radiator that I bought from Pick and Pull set me back fifty bucks. 

Everything went back together smoothly and a couple of short test runs didn't indicate any problems, so I was set to go.

My Wife had ordered an exact replacement Smart Junction Box off E bay, now all we had to do was wait for it to arrive. Then I would be good to go.